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Missouri State rolls past South Dakota State at Sanford Pentagon

With South Dakota State having picked up a pair of wins over power conference foes in the previous week, a sizable contingent of Jackrabbit fans in Sioux Falls came to the Sanford Pentagon anxious to get a glimpse of one of the hottest teams in mid-major basketball on Saturday night.

With South Dakota State having picked up a pair of wins over power conference foes in the previous week, a sizable contingent of Jackrabbit fans in Sioux Falls came to the Sanford Pentagon anxious to get a glimpse of one of the hottest teams in mid-major basketball on Saturday night.

Turns out the timing for that wasn’t so good, as the Jacks laid an egg in front of more than 2,000 fans, ending up on the wrong end of a 73-53 stomping at the hands of Missouri State, the preseason favorite in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Bears big man Alize Johnson had 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead the way, as MSU led the game front to back, outshooting, outrebounding and outworking the Jacks.

For a team that had built serious momentum with wins over Iowa and Ole Miss, among others, it was a disappointing way to greet friendly fans in a different venue.

“It’s definitely really disappointing,” said guard Tevin King, who led the Jacks with 13 points and added five rebounds. “We were really looking forward to this, and the fans came out and supported us. (MSU) played really hard and made plays. It wasn’t a good night for us.”

The Bears aren’t exactly known for hot outside shooting, but drilled nine first-half 3-pointers to take a 43-26 lead at the break, including three from Johnson. In the second half the Bears moved inside, and continued to keep the Jacks at arm’s length. A 3-point play by Brandon Key cut the lead to 10 seven minutes into the second half, but that was as close as the Jacks would get.

“It was a butt-kicking from start to finish,” said Jacks coach TJ Otzelberger. “They were the more aggressive team, the more locked-in team, they moved the ball better and they rebounded better. They just outplayed us.”

Reggie Scurry had 14 points for MSU (7-2) and Jarrid Rhodes had 12 (hitting 4-for-4 from deep), but the story was the Bears’ success in holding down Jackrabbit post Mike Daum.

Daum came in averaging 20.1 points per game after averaging 25.1 last year, but the Bears held him to seven points on 3-of-14 shooting. The 6-9 junior had some good looks that just rimmed out in the second half, but it was still jarring to see the Summit League MVP struggle like he did.

“On the ball screens and transition that we usually run, they jammed the screens so they could stay attached to him so he didn’t have any room to move, and that was effective,” Otzelberger said. “We got him some touches in the interior and had a couple close looks he missed. We want him to be aggressive, and he wasn’t quite as aggressive as we’d like him to be, but (MSU’s) size and length is real and they make you take a little bit tougher shot than you’d like to.”

The Jacks (7-3) have another big mid-major challenge this week, as they travel to Wichita State on Tuesday night. SDSU had been playing so well prior to Saturday that it might be tempting to just forget the loss to MSU, but the Jacks coach isn’t taking that approach.

“No, we have to take this and learn from it,” Otzelberger said. “You don’t want to have the highs and the lows. We need to be able to consistently depend on defending people and rebounding the basketball. That has to be part of our DNA. It’s not just about making shots.”